Not Yet Broken
by Mewdu
Summary: Pain has succeeded. A world falls apart, and Sakura has accepted she's meant to die in honor. But what falls and breaks can always be fixed. What she always thought was shattered, was just cracked, not yet broken. JuugoXSakura
1. Crack

**Though I'm not sure about this one...I'm currently holding my brain hostage for being nastily uncooperative, so I wrote this. (Awhile ago...actually.) I can't think clearly, and nothing comes without me forcing it.**

**Translation: I have horrendous writer's block at the moment. Also to boot I wrote a bazillion one shots and other garble like this instead, and fear the wrath of those "other stories" readers.**

**If you understood that and don't detest me at the moment, than you get an invisible badge! Whee.**

**DO NOT READ IF YOU'RE NOT UP TO DATE WITH THE MANGA OR ANIME**

**(How's that for spoiler alert? Unless you don't care...)**

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* * *

__Juugo.._

_**Juugo..**_

_Juugo!_

His head throbbed and his throat ached from water depravation, just the thing for a caged beast such as himself. Being too dangerous for the outside, too monstrous for contact with normal people having its twisted consequences. He even surpassed people more vastly separated from their minds than he.

Why was it this way? He deserved to be outside. _They _deserved punishment. _They _deserved _death._

_**Juugo. Kill them.**_

And that voice!

It was maddening with the perpetual repentance of his own name.

_Juugo!_

"Stop it!" Juugo screamed, gripping his head in agony. "I know,_ I know._"

He slammed his back against the metal confines of his cage, his chains clinking like a signal.

When would it stop, if ever?

He didn't want to kill anybody. It wasn't supposed to be this way. He was never supposed to murder with such a pleasurable feeling. _But he did. _

Every single time.

If there was anyone to hate, it was himself, not the people who had made him a merciless killing machine. Oh, how Juugo despised his own blackened soul.

_**Everyone deserves to die. Kill them...**_

_**Juugo.**_

Again. It was there again. The words were like poison, stinging his controlled thoughts and furthering it into his other horribly demonic subconscious.

Then, she came.

**-OOO-**

"_Let me go!_" She kicked and bit at their hands. They laughed at her, pleased that they had gotten such an openly amusing rouse out of the girl.

They tossed her inside a cell, still laughing.

"What?" one guard asked, scrutinizing her pitiful form. "Did you expect the royal treatment because of your previous status as a ninja?"

She leaped forward with a shrill cry. Thick poles of titanium met her fury and she bounced back, griping her shoulder.

"Bastards," she spit.

She flinched as he grabbed at her hair through the metal confine and pulled her close to him.

"Think again, Sakura Haruno," he whispered against her face. "The world you knew is over. Get used to it."

He chuckled darkly again, slamming her face into the bars before leaving the girl to her own caged destiny.

Sakura curled away, wincing slightly as her arm brushed against the dirtied wall. Her nose throbbed and blood gushed as she touched it lightly with the tips of her fingers.

The Akatsuki. That ruthless band of criminals had actually done it. _He_ had set fire to all villages after Konoha's demise. Pain, a name that was too highly disgusting even in her thoughts.

He had sought out all who had opposed them, roping them together in these prisons like dirty animals. It was ironic how the very prison they'd caged her in was admits the ruins of Konoha like some sick joke.

He constantly spoke of peace. What peace ended in death?

And that's what she had told him.

"_Join me, Sakura. I am very much displeased by unnecessary bloodshed_."

Sakura bit her thumb and spit at the dirt that was there.

He hadn't been smug about her defeat, which made it difficult to tell if he was a deceitful person. Had he been lying? It really hadn't seemed that way. Sakura mentally replayed the scene, her confusion escalating with every word.

"_Your powers would be a very valuable attribute to my plan."_

_His eyes played over their locked gaze lightly with a demanding quality._

_Sakura looked from the ground, bloodied and dirty from protecting Naruto and being dragged away by a few of Pain's followers."I'd never help you hunt down Naruto! I __**don't **__sell out my friends." Sakura laughed at the strange thought. "Then again, I wouldn't expect someone like you to understand."_

_He smiled for the briefest of seconds, like he found amusement in her spiteful words. Then his cold persona returned quickly._

"_I see," he said with a glance to the guards that held her down. They yanked her up quickly without bothering to hear a verbal command. A look was enough with Pain concerned. "There is a holding station in Konoha you'll be positioned at. As I mentioned before, I detest any bloodshed without cause. But if you're as skilled as I've heard . . . you might be useful in more than one way."_

She'd screamed, she'd kicked, clawed, bit. Yet here she was to suffer in whatever unending torture Pain had subjected to her.

At least Naruto had gotten out. That's what was important. So, she had been taken prisoner in exchange for his fact alone that Pain wouldn't be able to complete his horrible world domination was a drive large enough for Sakura to see the light in her bleak surroundings.

Sakura folded into her arms and legs, feeling the scratches and pain she'd numbed these past few weeks of utter five nations had fallen. Thousands were dead.

But Naruto had escaped, the only missing link in Pain's demonic plan.

_Happy. _She should be happy.

"I'm happy . . . "

Yet the tears came anyway.

**-OOO-**

_Laughing._

Juugo could hear the faint sounds of laughter. He hadn't heard that sort of merry noise in so long. Suigetsu had laughed. At Karin, of course. And it was in a more cynical way, but it was laughter.

But this was so near, just outside his metal cage.

_**Near is good. Near means you can kill them faster.**_

Juugo mentally pushed these thoughts away with little ease.

He could smell the sweet flowery aroma of a woman. Killing a woman would bother him more than taking a life of a were fragile_. _Well . . . most women.

Juugo scratched at the ground, tracing the names of his former team in the dirt. Or blood. With so many people passing in here and being killed by his incapability to control the lust for blood that haunted him, Juugo couldn't even _smell _the difference anymore.

_Sasuke . . . _

_Karin . . . _

_Suigetsu . . . _

He repeated them as he wrote, not wanting to forget the days he'd been able to move freely among people again. Sasuke had been capable of withholding his _other _side so easily. Just as . .

_Kimimaro_

Juugo stared at the familiar name he'd written unconsciously after his teammates'.

He'd died. Why hadn't he, himself, already?

_**Not YOU, Juugo.**_ _**THEM.**_ _**They deserve to die.**_

Juugo gripped his head and curled his fingers into his hair.

"Ngh."

He felt it. The curse mark. It was spreading. Inflaming his skin with the design of a man-made killer. It swirled dangerously from beneath his grey prison garb and stretched along his face in bulging tendrils.

He tore at his shoulder, thinking he could stop its growth. It licked at his thoughts, seeding them with the images of all he'd taken barehanded. The horrid thoughts burned his retinas, but he couldn't rid of them.

Before long he was . . .

_**Locks!**_

Juugo's blood thirsty eyes darted toward the door, his thoughts mingling and blending with the curse mark's.

_**Woman . . . No matter. I'll kill them all . . . **_

Juugo watched silently, licking his lips at the piercing screams he would hear when they saw the monster they were so keen to unleash upon themselves. He should be _thanking _them. Confinement made his killing thirst so hard to quench.

The random guard. The foolhardy insubordinate.

He gazed among the bodies that littered the space-deprived cell.

_**Lucky souls . . . **_

To be killed by him was an honor. It meant he cared enough to end their pitiful existences.

His listened intently as the sound of a key turning numerous locks grazed his ears. They were coming in! Lucky indeed...

"But so foolish!"

He pushed up from the ground, his distorted arm pulsating violently and distorting itself into weapon for destruction.

At that exact moment sea green eyes preened his bloodthirsty gaze.

He'd just killed an angel.

**-OOO-**

He was staring at her.

His eyes flashed orange through the opaque surroundings. So opposite from the frightening red she'd seen before.

They'd claimed she was going to have a bunk mate. By the way they had laughed so snidely should've set off warning signals. But it hadn't. And the painful consequence was being shoved into a cell and being rushed at so quickly, with the crazed eyes of a killer blurring in her vision as something sharp punctured her stomach.

But by what . . .

Sakura looked to him. Even sitting down, his largeness was apparent. Little flecks of light passed under the crack of the door now and again, so Sakura could see enough to know his hair was a kind of soft light red, almost an orange of sorts.

After their violent introduction of each other, he had backed into a corner, his chains signifying that maybe he was in here for reason more than rejecting the reality Pain was set on to fulfill.

At first the raw pain had been so bad her breaths had come in complicated gasps that were more trouble than rewarding. She had crawled pathetically over to the opposing side, thinking he was just back tracking to charge again. The second time fatal.

But he stayed where he was in the obvious solitude state he was accustomed to. Almost like a young puppy who knew it broke the rules, except he was more like a large wolf with split morals.

But she could feel as he stared . . .

And stared . . .

Still stared . . .

Sakura opened her closed eyes when she heard a slight low grumble. The pain in her stomach had lessened after sewing the wound with her chakra. The suffering was bearable but the healing had taken a large amount of energy she hadn't had for spare.

She peaked through the darkness, wary of his presence and confused to as why he hadn't disposed of her already.

Nothing.

Sakura rested her head against the wall with little comfort, settling for the reason that it was her loopy drowsiness taking effect from sleep deprivation.

"I'm sorry . . . "

Sakura snapped fully awake.

Calm, smooth. His voice was so gentle.

"For what?" she asked, skeptical that he had even spoken.

His gaze faltered for the first time in what she assumed were hours.

He scratched at the ground, then looked to her again. "I hurt you."

Sakura cocked her head to the side. He was sorry?

But before she could ask him more, the door was thrown open and a group of guards blurred in.

"She's alive . . . " one said in disbelief. "She's tamed Juugo."

Then he charged.

**-OOO-**

Juugo didn't think, didn't even stop to _feel_. That would only slow him.

He barreled through the guards that had been so foolish to unleash his anger, clutching one and feeling the sickening crack as his neck broke beneath his curled, bloody fingers.

Weak. _weak._ **WEAK.**

_**All of them!...**_

Juugo slashed at another with his lengthened claw-like nails. He fell without a scream, a gash pouring with blood across his chest.

_**They're all so WORTHLESS!**_

He felt the crunch of nimble bones beneath his nerves when slamming another into the cold stone of the prison he'd begun to know so well.

That made ten.

But he smelt another one. A worthless human life, this one somehow weaker than the others.

He swivelled toward the presence of the lower being, taken aback a bit when the image of a frightened woman broke through his clouded thoughts. She stared at him with glittering eyes on the edge of tears.

She'd witnessed it all.

Juugo stepped back, the feeling of shame pulsating through his curse mark easily and allowing him to _see _what he had caused. This destruction, these _lives._

Juugo felt his violent wanting for destruction slip, and closed his eyes to block out the woman. She was doing it. The girl was somehow controlling his other side.

_**She must be killed!**_

It felt like a slap, that thought. For the barest of a moment, he had allowed himself to think he could control the vicious weapon. But it wasn't so. He was doomed to a life of chains and self loathing–

His left arm thickened, his veins warping and his skin hardening into a indestructible shell.

–_**forever.**_

He stepped toward her slowly, his massive size overpowering her easily. She trembled, her eyes growing wide as the curse marked snaked around his eye, distorting the iris orange and the white that surrounded it black.

He grabbed her collar, the odd feeling of _not _wanting this itching his mind like an annoying reminder. It quickly grew to a sting as he held her up from the ground, her feet dangling pathetically as her nails tore at the hand that held her captive.

It was then that he took notice of her appearance. Usually, this wasn't a normal occurrence. With him it was kill when you can as fast as you can. The soft curves of her lips drew him in first. They were moving, forming words that didn't sound.

"_Juugo!_"

Juugo stiffened. That was his name, but _where? _Her lips were moving as she said it again, the same thing.

"Juugo!"

His curse mark burned then, receding as it finally felt the meaning of her words, the power his name held.

A coolness to his cheek was when he finally allowed his eyes to open. She was peering up at him, _smiling _even, as she said it again and he allowed her voice to break against the thoughts that plagued his actions.

She held a both hands to his face.

"Juugo_._ It's okay. You're okay."

His fingers loosened their grip. He felt himself convert to his original mind and lay her down gently.

Then...he fell asleep. His last image of an angel watching over him.


	2. Split

**Well, here's another. And considerably fast knowing my update rate. Thank you uchiha miyo and Narutogirl101 for the reviews, and all the great people who favorite and alert! It truely makes my day. And for those who wonder, this is one of those 'stop at one point and make up the rest' stories. I'm pretty sure there's a word for it, but I make myself sound like a noob by not knowing it.**

**You are dismissed to scroll down now.**

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"She's _tamed_ him?"

Pain turned, puzzled. He had expected a more gruesome report, of maybe her remains scattered throughout the cell. Not the tale of the bipolar child found asleep on her lap.

Pain had set up the little scheme himself. She had been unwilling to embrace his future views for the world, so he'd wound the lies and let her go. Surely she would change her thoughts then...but too late to repent in death.

The fact that she was still alive was appalling. But this worked in his favor two ways as well.

"Yes. But we've contained the two of them together." The man stood from the respective bow stance he'd been accustomed to complying to when in Pain's presence. "It seems he's reluctant to leave her side. And we would have had casualties otherwise."

True.

Pain turned from him in thought. If this Sakura girl could control Juugo's curse mark, then the hunt for the nine-tails would be much easier than he had originally planned.

But Sasuke's disappearance from the Akatsuki so abruptly bothered his sequence for playing his world domination out.

With the ultimate weapon for destruction by combining all nine bijuu at his whim, surely those petty resistance groups wouldn't be much of a setback as much as they were now.

Naruto must be captured and Sasuke undoubtedly killed.

"Get them."

Pain sighed as the man nodded and left, releasing his daily stress as he sank into the chair that dominated as the only piece of furniture for the rounded room.

Now he had to escalate his stress by participating in a little chat with a very unreasonable infuriating teenage girl.

World domination seemed so much easier.

**-OOO-**

He was a wall. A living breathing walking wall. Not that she could scale him out much since he insisted he walk behind her for the safety measures she wasn't even clear on. And he had referred to her as the angel, quiet as a whisper, too. Like he was afraid he'd hurt her with the simplest of inquiries.

Again, they'd only managed to exchange words twice now. The second time being an accident. Sakura looked to her hands with confusion twisting her stomach. The ability to comfort and quiet him had come so easily. And now she had a large puppy trailing her everywhere she went.

The guard walked in front of them. They had been walking hallways for over an hour at least, her sore feet being the only stinging hint, and he didn't really seem keen on keeping them quiet. Almost like he was afraid of something. Or someone.

"Hey, Juugo!"

She'd done in a snippy whisper and instantly felt childish.

Beside the awkward pause in between, Sakura felt the slight hesitance in his step. He'd heard her. She didn't expect a reply, he was more of the quiet type. Kind of sweet when she looked past his vastness and leaned on the fact that he had apologized, not that he converted into a bloodthirsty monster out for blood.

That in itself was pretty hard to bypass and Sakura found herself hesitant to pry.

"Why did you...Why did you call me an angel?"

He remained silent, his wide slapping steps on the stone floor the only indication that he hadn't slipped away. Sakura flushed, embarrassed, even knowing she shouldn't have expected an answer in the first place. But that moment in the cell had felt significant for her, like they were connected deeply to each other. She rubbed at her arms, cold suddenly.

A low rumble caught her off guard and she stopped. Juugo wasn't small, towering over her meager five three at six something with broad shoulders and a strong, capable build. When she stopped, he rammed into her from behind. It felt like a brick wall and she expected to go flying just when fingers curled firmly in a grip above her elbow.

"Tha–thank you." His eyes plunged through her, innocent, clear. So opposite from the twisted black they'd been before. Then he recoiled like his touch alone was enough to hurt her.

"Hey, you two. Hurry up." The guard had stopped and stood impatiently. Juugo met his gaze and the man stumbled, his once firm command becoming weak. "Master Pein won't want to be kept waiting."

This time it was more of a mumbled suggestion and Sakura looked to Juugo in wonderment. He only shrugged and continued to trail her as she followed the guard who had halted to wait at a large padlocked door. It stroked the ceiling and stretched at least twenty feet along the wall with its iron knobs gleaming maliciously at them.

Sakura squared her shoulders as Juugo watched her in meager interest. She knew what laid in waiting for the two of them behind these doors. Certain death. But one thing was for sure–

Adrenaline simmered in her veins, powering the fury she held toward the man.

–she wasn't going down without a fight.

**-OOO-**

Pain watched in judging silence as the medic girl stepped through the heavy ironed doors.

Involuntarily, his mouth twitched slightly at the corners seeing she had opened the door herself. Even in their first meeting Pain had taken notice of Sakura's strong character, but it was still amusing to see her struggle against a fate she'd already been forcefully succumbed to.

The same girl he had witnessed burning Konan alive in the same very room as him still breathing with all limbs attached. All for the plan, he had reminded himself countless times after his partner's death. But Konan's passing hadn't been in the plan. Sakura's had.

Sure, he had claimed her abilities and relationship to Naruto an important tie for the Nine Tail's capture. But a deep hatred had burned fresh from within him every image of Konan half transformed into her paper jutsu disappearing in seconds, engulfed in treacherous whip lashing flame. Her quiet smile of accepted defeat was etched into his retinas like a poisoned image that never stopped to cease his inner turmoil.

**He hated Sakura Haruno.**

And here she stood before him, staring into his gaze with a level of defiance all her own.

Not dead. Not scarred beyond repair. Still _alive._

She squared her shoulders stiffly when he lifted a hand for signal. Two of his men shot forward and seized her from behind, caging her on her knees so she bowed below him. This only succeeding so easily from her low energy levels and chakra depletion. He had deprived her of the basic survival necessities as precaution against her supposed skill as a ninja.

The orange headed boy's eyes smoldered brightly when she screamed out in surprise. Pain looked to him in meager interest, but didn't call them off of her. Of course he had seen the destruction the boy could cause, Pain having slipped once and nicked in the cheek bringing him in after Sasuke's unsuspected abandonment.

He smoothed a thumb over the scar lightly, remembering the small setback of losing over twenty-five highly trained men.

It didn't matter now.

"Sakura. Pleased to see you so energetic this morning."

It wasn't exactly a lie. He would just be more pleased if she were dead.

She then released a low grunt that could have passed as a snarl and Pain remembered with twisted amusement that the angry little medic that laid before him loathed his very being as well. And for the petty reason of wanting to sacrifice her friend for the ultimate peace.

How selfish.

"What you're doing is wrong!"

Pain resisted a sigh. No matter how far she surpassed his expectations, the girl did have a flaw. She had the pure desire to help people that didn't need the advice in the first place.

In this instance it was like telling the opposing side of an army that their enemies were just like them.

All useless in his state of mind no matter how good or bad the intention was.

He cocked his head to the side, a gesture that inflamed her green eyes with rage.

"To you it seems so," he said calmly. "But the world is already running sufficiently enough without hundreds of governments ruining the security people _should _have with their figure heads and political advisers."

He could tell she was biting her tongue, but Pain was disappointed. He'd been hoping for the fiery debate she'd launch into. Then her mouth quivered and Pain saw she _so _badly wanted to knock his skull in with her own presumption of how the world used to be.

Then she met his eyes again, and he was surprised at the solid confirmation he saw there.

"What's wrong with a world people are content with?" she asked, the question not meant to be answered. "War is horrible, it causes...pain...and often leaves people with physical and emotional wounds heal."

Pain watched her as she watched him with a certain gleam in her eyes. What was that? It was familiar. Like–

"You still don't understand." She flinched away from his cold tone, and Pain knew no matter how solid of a front she put on, he still held the power. _He _intimidated _her_. "There will always be pain in this world. And I am stopping it. _I _am helping the world. _I _care about the people."

He held up a hand and twitched two fingers forward.

"You're still too naive to realize pain just yet."

One of the men at her left stepped back, and she laid there still as she had been when held down, like she knew what was about to happen.

Pain had to give her credit for her bravery. But also inwardly shake his head at her foolishness.

The man wasted no time and began twisting his hands rapidly into his known bloodline jutsu_. _

Pain watched Juugo in earnest patience. Pain didn't expect Haruno to be injured too harshly before the curse marked boy snapped. He just had a few loose ends to make sure of.

Pain's attention was thrown from Juugo as the man stepped toward Sakura with the precision of a master, his fingers resting lightly on her temples.

Seconds passed in silence, then came an almost inaudible mumble from the man and Sakura's body literally caved in on itself. She didn't yell, she _screamed_as the man's chakra flew through her system, shocking every nerve ending in her body. When people had to choose between death and this jutsu, they chose death. Experiencing it was like dying in itself, but it never ended. You just suffered and suffered. It was a whole new level of pain.

Pain cherished that scream like no other, and felt no speck of remorse as she writhed on the ground screaming, her face an ashen glow from the pain and sweat.

Then her shrill cries stopped suddenly and Pain opened his eyes. The Juugo boy had his mutated fingers curled around the man's neck, laughing as the squirming man saw the death he couldn't avoid. Juugo's normal serene look was replaced with the look of a mad man, blood shot with the curse mark staining the whites in his eyes black.

Even now it looked terrifying and Pain understood why his underling pleaded mercy, abandoning his pride before the neck beneath Juugo's irrational hands crunched sickeningly against bone.

Pain leaned into his hand, feeling a little bored watching as Sakura crawled away_, _Juugo swinging his gnarled trunk of an arm into Pain's other guard. The impact sent him through the air and thudding against the wall, his head caving in at impact. Checking for breaths would have been meaningless.

Juugo turned toward Pain, his eyes pulsating, a grin so twisted and bloodthirsty on his face that made Pain nearly cringe.

People called him a horrible man, but he never did _that_. He never destroyed a person from the inside out.

Killing for peace was one thing. Forceful experimentation was another.

Pain's gaze flicked to Sakura for a moment. She sat with wide eyes, catching herself in the small moment of fear and looking to Juugo then the ground. Almost like she didn't know exactly what to do.

Hesitation was all it took_. _Juugo's inflamed eyes cited in on the girl. Her body grew rigid for a second, surprising Pain for the barest of a second when she didn't shrink back.

"You think _**you **_can beat _**me**_?" Juugo screamed at Sakura. "Go ahead and try, woman! I'll rip you in two at the slightest twitch!"

Sakura shrank away, then realized her mistake when he sent her flailing through the air before she hit the ground. Her body laid motionless.

"Heh." He grinned like it was her mistake for existing. "You moved."

Pain watched completely still as Juugo hesitated mid-step toward a struggling Sakura on the ground. His blood-shot eyes scanned her form as she leaned against an elbow and took him in, her normal fiery eyes weakened to a smolder. Her eyes burned bright as she struggled an inward battle of confusion between two opposite judgements.

Pain surveyed the display, a slight interest that she might not die clouding his better logic to call forth help to take them both down.

He couldn't kill them. Not...yet.

"Juugo."

Sakura tone was strong, firm as she pushed herself up on her knees, reaching tentative fingers for a hold on him.

"No!" he growled, resisting the calming sensation of her voice.

He wanted to fall into her embrace so, _so badly_. Juugo knew it down deep, and she knew it, too.

That's what scared him most.

One side chided his thoughts seductively. One swing, or a hand over that thin, delicate neck. She'd be dead in a matter of one, two insignificant moves.

The other opposed the idea strongly. Yelling, screaming at him to fight the urge. But this voice was too small.

"It's not enough!"

He swung his arm against her throat, confused when he felt a deep hatred for himself when the feeling of her beneath him was so unfavorable. She coughed in reaction, bloody specks littering his arm and making his eyes go wide.

_This was bad._

"No! _**No! **_This is what should happen!" He watched her twist under the weight against her throat, a loan whimper sending an icy sliver stabbing through his subconscious. The distraction had him releasing his hold an inch.

"Please–" she gasped for breath, "–please, Juugo!"

Juugo confused her cries as pleading mercy and gripped her hair back in a tight hold with his other hand to quiet the voice that amplified his other side's agonizing cries.

"Shut up!"

Sakura cried out as he ripped at her roots. Sakura bit her tongue and found the bare strength that ran thinly through her veins to grab hold of his face, her touch distracting him the few seconds she needed.

"I won't let you lose yourself," she whispered. "You can't let _you_ lose yourself."

Juugo hesitated. His eye flashed calmly for a split second.

Sakura took advantage of his hesitation and wrapped her fingers warmly around the knobby purple hand that had halted just above her face. "You're okay. I'm right here."

Juugo sank back, looking down at the hand that touched him gently. He'd hurt the angel attached to that hand. And yet, she didn't run away. Like she knew he would lose himself wholly to his blood lust if she didn't heal him with smooth words and a kind hand.

He felt himself waver back to his calm self slowly, the gnarled stump of an arm retracting into normal tendons and smooth, pale skin.

But she was scared. The long fingers that laid curled around the inside of his hand shook lightly, and her face was pale, her skin taunt around her cheekbones.

Juugo laid there, feeling horrible as he watched her suffer again for the second witness of the monstrosity that was himself. He'd never had much social experience with other people, his interactions mostly limited to Kimmimaru's guidance and team Hebi with Suigetsu, Karin, and Sasuke.

And they weren't even here anymore.

He closed his eyes and crumbled to his knees. Defeat thrummed hot in his veins, quickly receding with relief. He hadn't killed her, he had been able to forbade the want, the _curse_.

And Pain sat, watching carefully as Sakura stood up and set him with a spark-flying gaze. Now she was _really _angry. She spat at the ground, a bloody glob that spoke wonders of how her insides fared. Her determination was certainly something to reconcile with, but not if he couldn't avoid it. Nothing was worse than a hot-blooded woman on his hide.

So Pain stood, all to well aware of the pair of murky green eyes that calculated the slightest breath he took. Which he took slowly, just wanting them to wonder. "Congratulations," he said, devoid of any surprise. Because hadn't he expected it? But it didn't hurt to prepare, because preparation had won the battle.

Soul didn't count for anything if it could be crushed.

Sakura caught his gaze in a searching wonderment. This man had killed a nation, but she withstood the fear that shook her legs and burned her lungs. To lose against this man-this _monster _wasn't something she'd let herself think. Everyone fell, even the ones who thought themselves above the rest. Pain was no exception.

He stopped a few feet from them, glancing at the breathless boy and the girl who shakily held her ground.

"You protect him." Pain watched her face carefully as it twisted subsequently from his words. Confusion, realization, and finally again to stone.

She merely stared him down. The corner of his lip twitched in a barely smile. "Even after he nearly killed you." He met her eyes finally. "Multiple times. Yet you continue to fight back."

"Who else," she said, her jaw clenched tightly at the urge to take back what he had stolen. The village crushed, and so many people dead burned behind her eyes. This was all she had left. "You tantalize the strong and make them weak."

"Together the weak are indestructible. That is what you believe..." Sakura watched as he put a fisted hand to his face, maneuvering his signs for a teleportation jutsu. "Look harder, Sakura Haruno. Ignorance will be your downfall."

Her legs instantly collapsed when he disappeared. And she screamed then, tearing the walls with wail after wail. _He was right in front on me, _she thought to herself. _And I could do nothing._

Her eyes turned to Juugo. "Are you alright? Scratches?" She ignored the waver of her voice, and tried not to notice the way her fingers shook as she examined his arm. The same one that had kicked her around like a doll moments before.

"That man..." His eyes darted to ground and sideways when she looked up at him. "He's gone."

Juugo restless gaze settled for the empty space Pain had stood. Under her tentative hands, his muscles remained stiff and ready for action.

"For now. But he'll be back." She stood with little ease, the pain in her side escalating the caution against her low chakra level. "He would have killed us otherwise."

"You should go. I'll only hurt you again." He met her eyes briefly. "So you should leave while they're thinking of what to do about us."

_Before I turn back_, he thought. The words only stuck to his tongue.

"I'm not afraid of you." Sakura shook her head, and smiled a small smile. "You're not the one who hurts me."

Juugo stared up at her while she looked down at him.

_This girl..._

Their reactions were simultaneous as the door cracked open. A man with blue skin and a mouth lined with tiny knives smiled at the two of them as he twirled a blinking bracelet between his fingers.

Sakura glared at him, her memory itching with angry familiarity as the man stepped forward. "Who are you?"

His jagged smile only grew. "The gift bearer." He held up the flashing bracelet, switching it in the air between the two of them. "Now who wants theirs first?"


	3. Snap

**I'm surprised by this much feedback. This isn't my average style, so I'm just glad I wasn't shunned. ****In this chapter, I had a mildly difficult time writing a certain character's actions...but this is a different mood story, and that's how I pegged him to react and talk. I'm sure you'll figure it out. **

**And finally: Thank you all reviewers and readers, alerts, and favorites. It fuels this story and me to keep going!**

**Okay. I'm finished with the brown nosing. Scroll down now.**

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"Kisame," Sakura whispered.

"Bingo." He chuckled, stepping further into the light. Mangled white lines crisscrossed his face, the clawlike marks a battle scar of the transformed nine tails. Naruto had went into a fury driven rampage after Pain had destroyed the village. Kisame had just been in the right place at the wrong time.

"Just couldn't die." Sakura felt as Juugo hovered beside her, her words sharper and more confident with him so close.

"Tell me..." He paused in his step to look at Juugo, but his hesitance was not of fear. Sakura could see he was calculating his attack for the right time to slip in; an easily executed opening. "How does it feel witnessing your mentor die before your eyes?"

Sakura gritted her teeth to withstand the raw memory, reminding herself he was only looking for a rise. A distraction.

"Tell me," she said. Her smile was a twist of dark anger. "What's it like, kissing the feet of someone else to please?"

"I'd heard you had a quick wit." His easy grin tightened in regard. "Best to keep it in check, girl. You'll want to keep your limbs I'm guessing. You'll need them later."

Her suspicion easily thwarted her caution. "For what?"

"Eh." Kisame scratched the back of his head and rolled his eyes. "A mission. Let me be the first to say 'Welcome comrades.'"

Juugo stepped forward, and Sakura held out an arm to stop him. "And what would we get in return?"

"Heh. Your lives aren't gift enough now? Guess you didn't catch the hint we don't _exchange_. But..." He flipped the bracelet in the air once, twice. "We do deal on occasion. Care to listen?"

Sakura watched him carefully. His trust was about as solid as fractured glass, and yet there could be a way he had just given her an out. An easy one if she stepped carefully and chose the right words. She nodded once and relaxed her stance. Juugo stepped back.

"You wear these, and do what we say..." He revealed a second silver bracelet from behind. His smile was of glee. "And you can walk away. Free, unbound, no interrogations. Whatever the hell you want to call it."

Sakura looked at the bracelet. They were thick, silver restraints of some kind. There was a small square box with a blinking red light popping out on one edge, and Sakura guessed possible injecting poison. All activated by one rash act or a the uselessness of the bearer. Whichever came first.

He continued to grin and lifted one in her direction. "What do you say?"

She held out a hand. "Give it here."

Kisame chucked it to her with an easy flick of the wrist. "Heh. That's a girl."

The metal was cool in her hand, and she thought of it clamped tight on her wrist, certain death a penalty she wouldn't be able to outrun. Juugo would be the same, dead like her. They would kill them both eventually, this moment was just a stepping stone for the future. Pain was always thinking about the future.

So she brought it up in one smooth movement and crushed it against the ground. It lay in three perfectly cracked pieces. "Not even when I'm dead."

There was silence then, broken only by a slight chuckle. Sakura remained stone-faced, not allowing herself to escalate his small amusement. Questions would only make it worse.

"I said we _make _deals. We don't offer them."

Sakura looked down, knowing it was a mistake to hesitate when the bracelet lay in a circle no longer crushed. It sprang up, clamping into her skin. She fell with a scream, tearing at the bracelet when tiny knives spiked into her flesh. Tears rimmed her eyes as she stared him down, her vision waning while her fingers went numb.

The poison was taking affect.

"Bastard," she seethed.

His smile disappeared. "It would have been more painless if you had just taken it..." He paused and cocked his head. "Well...maybe not. But it was definitely entertaining."

Juugo bent for the one Kisame had thrown to him, and Sakura lifted a shaking hand. "Don't, Juugo. You can say no."

"Smart boy," Kisame commented. "Knows it'll only hurt you in the long run."

Juugo looked at her, then snapped the bracelet to his wrist with a quiet click. His eye twitched slightly and he let a small grunt slip as the poison entered his bloodstream.

Sakura and Juugo stared Kisame down with utter loathing lining their faces.

Another smile quirked his stained lips. "The first injection won't kill you. It's the other two liquids you have to worry about."

Sakura looked at the bracelet that flashed green now that it was attached to her ankle. _Other two, huh._

"But as long as you follow the rules...I don't think we'll have much of a problem with that."

Kisame spoke as if they would obey so willingly, but Sakura could see beneath his own pathetic display. He wanted them to stir things up, play his game. But rules were meant to be broken. And one by one, she was going to break them all.

"Your deal's done." She stood up, the pain in her side sharper than before. But she forced her legs erect, walking past his still form and fading smile. "Show us the way, _comrade_."

**-OOO-**

Kisame had led them to a room, square and bare with no windows. The walls were set in gray slaps of stone like everything else, but this time Juugo could even tell it wasn't a holding station; not even a prison. It was a interrogation center. Sakura was sitting against the opposite wall to him, oddly calm in all of this. Though she betrayed herself by biting her thumb often and glancing at the door Kisame had locked behind them.

And even with her calm exterior and her flustered behavior, her skin was stretched too thin along her white-washed face. Sweat lined her forehead, which he knew would burn if he was bold enough to check. She was hurting, and he didn't know what to say.

But he was calm. He no longer felt the want to hurt her. But Kisame...he had wanted to kill that vicious man like no other. Snap the pathetic mermaid's little neck, he silently considered. Or break each finger one by one just to watch that smiling face contort pain.

_**Yes. Play with your food, Juugo.**_

Then he would take the legs, or maybe the arms first so he wouldn't be able to drag himself away. He felt his lips slither a small smile as his eyes clouded. Nothing could cage him. He was a beast after all, and why not nudge their fears forward just the tiniest bit?

_**They needed it!**_

They was a slight pat to his face.

"Juugo! Can you hear me?" His dark thoughts slipped from his muddled mind so he finally noticed Sakura in front of him. He looked down, away from the prying gaze she always had.

She smiled just a bit when he glanced at her. "I was afraid you'd fallen asleep with your eyes open. You were just staring..."

His muscles tightened slightly when she slipped down the wall to sit beside him. He didn't understand it, how so inhuman her open kindness was. She should be afraid of him when he'd given her enough to be afraid of. More than enough opportunities to cast him off and take care of herself.

And yet...

"I don't understand you."

She leaned her head to the side to see the face he'd caged between his knees. But he wouldn't let her, not when one sight of her green eyes would only lock his thoughts together. At first he thought he would protect her, but she hadn't needed it, especially not a girl who always took care of herself.

"You're so strong, Sakura." He closed his eyes. "I thought you needed protection...but you don't. And you worry about me when you need to worry more about yourself."

He felt her shift slightly, and Juugo guessed most likely away. He had never said so much before, not since Kimimaro. But maybe that was it. So many things had changed, and he had stayed the same.

He needed to do it first.

Juugo lifted his head to look at her, at those eyes that bewitched him speechless and thoughtless.

And he said the truth.

"You don't need protecting, do you?"

She looked away first, but Juugo didn't feel the rush of regret at what he'd said. He continued to watch until she'd sighed quietly and let her head fall back to rest against the hard wall. And watched her still even as she closed her eyes and let her body slack just the bit so he believed she'd fallen asleep. But her eyes blinked once, twice as she watched the ceiling.

Seeing something he would never see.

"Once upon a time," she whispered. Then her green eyes shot clean through him, so blank and cold compared to the odd smile twitching her cracked lips. "I'm more selfish than you think."

Silence met her answer, and Juugo didn't dare break it, or didn't know for certain how to. Once an angel next to him now felt like a cold stranger. A stranger who'd given him a kind hand, a false one he shouldn't have taken like the glassy-eyed fool he had allowed himself to be. He didn't know this girl, and didn't want to provide the opportunity. They were simply in the same circumstance and nothing more. Nothing more than a twisted coincidence.

That's what he thought to himself furiously. But it wasn't true.

The hand merely a breath away was warm, as were the green eyes of a girl that he wanted to know. She couldn't be a stranger, not since she'd first tripped into his condemned life. It was impossible now, and he hated himself for it.

That he wanted to_ protect_ this girl. Wanted to _know _this girl.

Because maybe they were all monsters in a way. Wanting things they can't have, saying things they don't mean, hurting people they don't want to hurt.

So he would protect a girl who didn't want it.

Monsters aren't perfect.

**-OOO-**

"You're not serious?"

Sakura stared at Juugo with dull eyes, still unbelieving that the boy who'd offered her protection at first with an iron-clad fist had just calmly suggested escape. Escape from an Akatsuki Konoha holding station with ultimate death attached to her ankle and his wrist. It was unthinkable.

They both sat crossed-legged from each other now, him drawing a circle with his index finger while Sakura watched him with her jaw slack and her eyes frantic at the possibility.

"You know the land well growing up here," he said sensibly. "That's the advantage."

She nodded and considered it while studying the finished diagram he'd drawn in the caking dust. It was a maze of gray run-off's and dead ends. There were massive amounts of boxes that must have represented rooms, and only a few dotting doorways.

Her eyes rimmed with awe this time. "You memorized it all."

"Not all," he corrected, wiping off his hands. "Just enough to know the basic layout."

Sakura looked down, a burning net of rage knotting her thoughts knowing it was Pain's fault for all of this. She'd been here for a few weeks at most, but that probably didn't compare to Juugo's suffering. The thought only made her determination flare.

"There are three doorways," she mused quietly to herself. Then she noticed one dirt box was marked with a large S and another at the opposite end with an identical J. She shot him a questioning look. If he'd been at the opposing position end of her cell, then that didn't explain how he'd known. Unless he'd heard everything.

Sakura flushed deeply at the stray thought, knowing Juugo wouldn't bother cementing her inquiries, not since they'd first met each other. She'd learned early on if you didn't ask he wouldn't say.

Except she didn't want this answer.

She managed to point to the room with her insignia without wavering. "They wouldn't have anyone positioned there. The other cells were empty. But this." Her finger halted on the scrawled J, and she lifted one brow at him.

He shook his head. "Guards everywhere. Not that one."

Sakura bit her thumb, frustrated with the dead-end outcome. There were only three doorways they knew of for certain, and two were in Juugo's last sector. The final option was at the end of a long narrow hallway, and that was located near the furthest edge of the diagram. It was the weakest point of his pictorial display, if there were any at all to worry about, that part would be vague.

She looked at him again, pointing firm to their last chance. "You've seen this?"

His lips thinned instantly as his blank face focused on the diagram. Then up they were again, cloudy and drifted even when he met her eyes. "It's where I came through."

Sakura shrank back then as memories of her arrival stung at her heart. And she felt horrible bringing it up now, knowing that hope died here. Her last sight had been the village burning, ashes graying the sky, blood snaking the ground.

Screams.

She clutched at her chest and couldn't meet his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"You shouldn't be," he said tonelessly. "I don't remember it."

Their archaic eyes clashed, and Sakura mind itched for the why's. But she didn't say anything.

Instead Sakura thought of his change, how his eyes seeded red hatred so quickly.

_A friend to foe_.

She looked at the hands that had lovingly choked her and killed so many others, his face contorted with the extravagant merriment he thought it all in that twisted state. Then she thought of the real one, one that had not the expression of a mad experiment with murdering as its proper place. But instead of the gentle eyes of Juugo, of how he always avoided looking at her when he could look at himself. In anger. In hate for what he was.

Those who controlled what they did couldn't hate themselves.

And she looked at him, sitting there quietly drawing circles in the dust. Sakura realized that she could trust this man.

A friend in a web of lies.

"Well," she whispered, drawing her strength once again. "We're in this together, through and through. I doubt they'll separate us for long considering..."

There was a loud clank and their movements were simultaneous. Juugo scrubbed out the diagram with a nudge of his foot and leaned against the wall with his head down. Sakura crawled further along, careful not to jog her sore side.

The door was thrown open graciously, a man arranged in all black tapping loudly at the orange mask he wore. "Hmm. You're all so gloomy."

Sakura remained still, and grit her teeth to keep from tearing him apart when he hopped down to her level, studying her immodestly close. He touched her face lightly, tilting her chin back and forth. "Not so dangerous up close," he mumbled. He then clucked his tongue and shook his head in disappointment. "Kisame tells Tobi such robust lies!"

Tobi yelped when she fisted his shirt and drug him down. "You touch me again, and you'll beg for your words back, you asshole."

He hopped back on the balls of his feet and stood, Sakura staring with wide eyes when he stood next to a murmuring Juugo. "Tobi wasn't talking about you. This boy." To make an invaluable point, he nearly collided with Juugo's face leaning in for his inspection. "Weakness is in your strong point. You want to kill Tobi. Don't you, Juugo?"

"...not there...not there...kill him...no...yes..." Juugo's fingers had laced bone-white into his dirtily spiked hair as he whispered, most of it falling silent to Tobi's rocking loudly back and forth. Sakura set her jaw and stood, but Tobi acted too quick, clamping onto her sore side and gripping fast.

Juugo's eyes bled red watching her squirm under Tobi's vice hold. Gasps and pants slipped past her chapped lips, but she wouldn't let him do this, not play their sick _games_. She punched the jaw she could see, and his face inched to the left just the bit, but he didn't falter and only punished her with a firmer grip.

She fell on her knees with a cry, grabbing for Juugo's hand to keep him from falling into himself.

This 'Tobi' let her have that.

The pain slurred her thoughts and numbed her vision, but she could still feel as Tobi pulled her to his chest and splayed her fingers in Juugo's tainted line of sight.

He wiggled each finger one by one. "One, two, three, four, five...which shall Tobi start with, sir?"

"Stop it," she choked out. Her right hand gripped for Juugo's hold. It only met air. She watched him in front of her, watched him suffer as he battled his mind and will. Veins pulsated in his eyes, staining the orange with blood. Bulging blocks grew from his neck, and Sakura resisted a cry.

"That's it!" Tobi practically giggled. Sakura wanted to hit him, wanted to rip away his mask, but the pain broke her rebel down in slamming, hot waves of fresh hurt.

"You are sick! You are sick, you are sick..." She repeated it in fierce whispers, and tried to rip away from him. His arm dug into her side more as she struggled.

The burning agony broke her fight. And she didn't look as Tobi began pulling one finger to its breaking point. She only looked at Juugo, and her eyes met with the monster. She closed her sight willingly as she felt him shift in posture, and spring at Tobi. The only enemy he saw.

Tobi threw her to the ground and swerved. Juugo hit the wall and his arms shook where he'd caught himself. Sakura pushed up from her bloody knees and went to him, trying to see the face he'd ducked away in the shadows.

"No," he hissed. "Just stand there. Just..."

He fell to his knees and refused them both, lost to himself. Sakura almost cried in relief when the curse mark slithered and shrank back, then wholly disappeared. His chest heaved as he drank each breath in.

Sakura stood shakily and observed Tobi. He was leaning against the wall casually, one slow step at a time taken once Juugo had calmed his beaten lungs. She matched him step for step, stopping at the same few feet he refused to cross.

He tapped his mask as if out of habit and tilted his head in a mock-childish way. She dismissed his faux innocence with a glower. Then he shrugged plaintively, turning toward the door and tipping it wide again with the toe of his sandaled foot. "Pass. Tobi now commends you for your worth."

Silence ate away at Tobi's unmet words as Sakura ignored him and helped Juugo up.

Pure anger welled in her gut and wrenched every hateful thought from her body. Test after horrible test. Sakura numbly began to realize this monstrous cycle would never end unless she did something.

She had to play with fire.

She sat down on the dusty floor to Tobi's plain surprise. He studied her with both arms sealed across his chest when she fingered the pin holding the poison in place on her bracelet. The metal device squeaked once in warning when she teased it.

She closed her eyes, knowing it was stupid, knowing she could die.

But they couldn't kill her. They needed her.

"I won't play your games."

Sakura pulled the pin.


	4. Break

**Ah. Sorry for the wait. Wrote this over a period of months...so some parts might seem completely different from others. Hmm...I still don't like the beginning, but I'm okay with the rest of it. Plot finally kicks it into gear in this chapter. I hope, at least...All well. Hope you enjoy it! This is going to be a loooooong story...**

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Kakashi felt numb.

The fire danced his eyes as he stared out across the dark. There was a spit and crackle as one member of their squad tossed in another log to blacken and disappear. Like he had almost done. Kakashi followed Naruto's footfalls as he moved to sit by him, his legs crisscrossed as they watched the flames together.

"You should sleep, Naruto."

If he had glanced, he would have seen the slight tilt of a frown on Naruto's dirt-smudged face. His blue eyes would look like shinny black beads in the night, lighting up in annoyance that his equal teammate continued to treat him like a kid. Even if they still called him sensei.

"No," he said.

Kakashi's own eyes hardened. "You haven't slept for three days. If you don't, your body will shut down whether you want to or not. Our progress against the Akatsuki will be lost."

His answer was in silence. Naruto was calm, drawing small circles into the dirt with a stick. They were smooth at first, but became jagged and sharp as seconds ate into minutes. "Dammit." Naruto pushed harder, willing the tremble in his hands away. There was a quick crack as the wood snapped under pressure. He threw it into the fire and clasped his hands together to stop them from shaking.

Kakashi dully watched the small wood quickly fleck to ash, not knowing what to say. He had spoken of what needed to be done often, honor no question when it came to a mission. But there were times when things became too close that they hurt to talk over like it did not matter. And Kakashi was sure Naruto would understand his want, so much so that he would not hesitate to mistake his feelings for a course of needed action. "Naruto..." Kakashi would not allow himself to go through that pain again. Things came and went with time, and Naruto needed to understand that.

"Don't think about it," he said, staring at the ground even when Kakashi turned toward him. His face was a hallow shadow, orange only on his cheeks, nose, and lips. "Is what you're going to tell me." Naruto's eyes peered at him once. Then he only whispered, "But I think as I eat, she doesn't. As my injuries are healed, they only give her more. And when I sleep, they keeps her awake because of _me_!"

Kakashi did not move, and stayed quiet knowing when words were not enough.

"These past three days I've thought about stuff like that. How I could have changed it, even knowing things would have just been worse if you hadn't dragged me off. Pervy Sage would just tell me I'm thinking too much. " Naruto quirked a small smile and stood up from his knees, dusting at the dirt stains on his cloths. "And Master Kakashi tells me to sleep."

Kakashi almost smiled as he silently watched Naruto plop down against a tree and close his eyes. "Sakura's strong," he said quietly, glancing at Kakashi through the slit of his eyelids. "She wouldn't leave us behind. She wouldn't...Kakashi...sensei..."

Naruto's small sighs waned away into breathy snores as the fire dulled to licking at the grass for life. The anbu's mask looked almost black in the dying fire's meager light when he crouched to silently enjoy the night with Kakashi. It was the cat mask, tiger stripped black at the edges, eyes outlined in bloody crescent moons. He tipped it back to look at him with the face of an impassive friend. Yamato's eyes were black in the dark, alight even from the small smolder.

Kakashi smiled under his mask despite the ache in his jaw and the sad in his dark eyes. "You are a fool, Tenzo. You shouldn't let your guard up so easily, even if he is asleep."

The corner of his lips twitched up slightly. "Aren't we both, eh, Master Kakashi?" Yamato let the mask rest on his head, watching the fire struggle and spit to stay lit. He threw a thin stick in absently, glancing up once as the fire crackled from the sudden timber. "You should tell him tomorrow. Pleasant news has been far and few in between."

Yamato didn't say anything else, not when the only things to be said were of that day. And no one wanted, or wished to think of it more than they already had.

"Gaara handled this time of distress well," he said in response instead.

Yamato looked up, frowned a bit, then shook his head. "It isn't obligatory. Being Kazekage, he has to handle it well." His dark eyes closed . "Hmm. You already knew that. With kids these days, I should know the difference between rhetorical and an actual question by now. Especially Naruto..._Always_ talking to himself."

They both laughed together. Yamato's eyes showed the signs of life, something they were taught to withhold, something Kakashi himself had struggled to find after so long of being an anbu where the sway of emotion could foolishly hurt yourself and countless others.

It was one change of an unending pandemonium Kakashi did not mind.

"Off to Suna tomorrow, then?" Kakashi looked up to see Yamato's black eyes trained on him, the smile on his lips gone, but the smile in his eyes still there.

Kakashi dipped his silver head, watching the embers of ash-speckled logs fade cold. "Yeah."

Yamato left Kakashi alone then for his watch, the fire dying off to a red and orange smolder just minutes after. And he stayed, his vision going black only to be mistaken for the night sky he'd been staring up into for the last hours before they were to head out again. He finally settled for watching the last embers as they sputtered and hissed out, wondering if he'd been allowed to die instead of Lady Tsunade, if anything would have changed for the better.

If he had not opened his eyes to life for the second time in a moment of chaos.

_Blood pours down his face as medic shadows loom over his limp body._

_He looks around as shouts are numb to his ringing ears._

_Naruto! he panics. Akatsuki he remembers quickly._

_Naruto he finds safe. Sakura he witnesses drug away into a pit of fire. Ash of paper dyes her hair white._

_He pushes Naruto ahead, willing him forward with word that Sakura is with them and secured._

_Naruto screams against him anyway. Kakashi bites his tongue as Naruto is thrown into the nine tails state and rips a gash over his chest._

_Blood drips over his torso, but he doesn't feel it. All he sees is fire. All he hears are screams._

_His as he falls to his knees. Naruto howls and screeches that of a beast as Yamato forces the seal physically in an open palm._

_His vison sears white and spots line his eyes as he pushes himself forward into the forest, past the chalky mounds of the village gates._

_He coughs and spits blood when are twelve hours away from the smells of death and anguished cries. All he can see is Sakura covered in paper snow, a hand in her hair as they rip her away._

_Naruto jolts awake screaming. His blue eyes are black when they tell him Sakura is gone, but he doesn't look at them. He only watches Kakashi with his black eyes and blank face._

_The tears that slip down his cheeks are in silence._

His eyes open for the last time_. _"Now it's time to wake up," he whispers.

_**-**_**OOO-**

When Sakura finally woke she felt the rush of pain as blood gushed to her head and she bit her lip, wanting to cry. Her legs remained numb to any thwarts of physical mistreatment, and Sakura almost did cry at the realization. The poison had paralyzed her legs.

Sakura didn't even need to look at him. "You have to leave me here," she said, her eyes steel.

Refusal created his frown, and he was ready to deny the request quickly. Then Juugo finally saw it. The water in her gaze and the pale sheen on her face. "You're sick," he quietly stated. And Juugo felt revolted at himself for not noticing sooner. As her teammate he should have taken precaution against it.

Sakura only shook her head in stubborn defiance. "I'm fine," she reaffirmed.

_A lie, _Juugo thought.

Her eyes were closed and she was breathing too hard. When she opened her eyes and noticed him studying her, Sakura looked away. "Their medics come on hour intervals." Her throat burned from the title they didn't deserve. Juugo paused for thought, then nodded in affirmation. "I heard the door close right before I woke up. You should leave me here to check the exit for guards."

Her eyes shut against him for the third time. Juugo knew she was too tired, but sick and paralyzed even she still wouldn't back down from their escape. "Fine," he agreed, watching the door and imagining the intervals in his mind. But he couldn't erase the small sting that revealed something didn't set well, leaving as she laid sick and vulnerable to anything they pleased. Experimentation Juugo knew of well enough, and he would never wish that upon anyone, no matter the whispers and chiding from his other mind attempting to convince him otherwise.

_**Punish them. Show them the extent of what they created.**_

His fists clenched and he stood, memorizing Sakura's sleeping face to picture in the darkest crevices of the halls, when the want would be great. Her breaths had become slow enough to mistake her for being asleep, but her green eyes slid open and she smiled at him, edging him away and out the room with the same smile behind his own eyes.

_I'm fine. _

Her voice was like the touch of her hand in his, her smile like the words he didn't have to coax himself away from the dark when he heard voices in the distance. His ears perked at the swish of a lab coat and the laughter of an ignorant _fool._

_**Crush those human skulls. Make them feel the pain of a beast. **_

It was like the blood was upon his hands, a beating heart at the whim of his twitching fingertips. He did, he really did want to experience a kill again. Deep inside there was a heart, his own heart beating faster at the prospect of a weak kill so close by. Too soon he looked upon the door with an aching jaw and trembling hands that traced the mangled bolts and twisted scratches. They never stopped to listen to his screams and yells. Their eyes were always a reflection of what they never let show from the inside.

Fear. Everyone was always afraid. Even Sakura.

Pain had watched Juugo as well. His eyes had been gray and half-lidded as if her were bored even as Juugo spit and screeched threats of his demise.

"_Put him away."_

Juugo fell to his knees, touching his forehead to the cold of escape, a breath away from freedom if he simply left now without Sakura. But he would too soon forget the smile and face that kept the chains wrapped tight. Outside he would rip them off and slaughter strangers with faceless screams.

He closed his red-lined gaze, blurring out the footsteps clacking the floor like a ticking bomb toward him.

"_It's better with me in here, Kimmimaro._ _It __is__. I know it is."_

"_Maybe..."_

His words were like a silent hymn echoing in the corners of his mind. "If you would rather live in the chains of a monster or die in the freedom of one outside," he whispered, remembering Kimmimaro's straight gaze and cold hand when he had led him away from a body he didn't remember. A face with lips parted in a perpetual scream he could not place.

"_Kimmimaro...did I...I don't remem...I didn't mean it..."_

"_It's not your fault, Juugo. They were in the way."_

"Hey! You're not supposed to be here!" The footsteps retreated back a few feet, their yell rising to capture the attention of another. Juugo rose silently, stepping up behind the small man and putting his fingers gently at the base of his stiffened neck. "Some–"

"_**You're in my way**_."

_Crack._

**-OOO-**

"What are you going to do?"

Pain tilted his head at the stillness of her tone. She had meant to be nonchalant about the question, and she hid her emotions well enough. But he could hear it despite her attempt; the sad tremble in her voice; the vulnerable side of herself she did not let many see. One that most did not live long enough to see.

Konan was often upset. She'd had the natural bond with people he had not been gifted with. She would cry with Yahiko when he would shield himself away from his closest companions. Even now.

"Discarding the body seems appropriate," he answered simply. "I see no use to remain in that weak capsule. Weak rulers do not run strong nations."

She remained silent for a time. Pain stood still by himself at the black double view window. Outside it looked to be a brick wall, but inside he observed the lives of Rain; citizens smiling now that there were no wars; children with parents to return home to; inns and taverns alive with people.

"_Peace cannot be found through sacrifice! You're only forcing us all into your ideal world!"_

"And the girl. Has she chosen to cooperate?"

There came a rush to his ears as her words faded. Screams echoed in his thoughts, fire burned into his mind's eye. Black paper fell like the rain. "The girl was difficult for a time," he replied easily, shielding the fierce rage bitter on his tongue. "Collecting the nine tails is only a matter of putting her in place."

Konan didn't reply. She stared at him with her purple eyes, looking down and shaking her head. Pain tried to ignore that look, the look that meant she didn't understand. Ignorance could not be tolerated in the perfect world, Konan knew him well enough to be aware of that.

But she didn't act as if she knew. Her fingers were curled into her white hands, and she averted her gaze. Pain faced away from the view of the alive outside, forming his eyes and lips into a passive stance when he studied Konan. "You are holding back, Konan. What is it? Do you not agree?"

She neither shook her head or spoke opposite of what he expected to hear from those shaded lips. The answer was in her eyes. Pain didn't dare look at her, shielding himself away from those eyes, relishing in the anger to distract himself. "Go," he said, forcing his tone to remain erect in a weak whisper. "I commanded you to leave!" he yelled, spinning on his heel with his serene face twisted in rage.

But Konan was not there. Her presence was replaced instead with Kisame, the sudden light blinding Pain into a split-second confusion. His blue-lipped mouth was stuck in a twisted half-frown, as if he wasn't sure whether to bother with his news or hightail it before Pain decided to kill anything within range.

Pain turned away from Kisame before he could register his irritation at the seemingly empty room. "What is it, Kisame? Something you cannot handle yourself, I assume."

Kisame didn't bother to seat himself at the desk chair by the bookshelf. He only leaned further in, his mouth stuck again between amusement and the professional straight-laced look. He jerked his head sideways once. "It's those two kids." Kisame let a small smirk slip through as Pain listened. "They're raising hell again."

_What are you going to do?_

**-OOO-**

His neck felt too hot, burned by the curse coiled tight in his gut where he shoved it hissing and spitting, barring the pain to the confine of his insides.

This wasn't good, Juugo knew it wasn't. He'd killed again, but did not raise his head to check. Making that mistake once was enough to hurl his brain into a sickly state of nausea. He clasped his sweaty hands together, rocking back and forth, raspy breaths the only sound within his small cage.

"_It's __**my **__fault...They're dead because of __**me**__."_

"_I said not to lie like that. You promised me, Juugo."_

"_But...I did that. I killed those people. You should leave me here to die. I'll kill you too...someday I'll kill you and I won't remember."_

"_If you did not remember killing me, then you did not kill me. The thing they put inside of you killed me. Even if one of us were to die eventually, I would die first."_

"_Kimmimaro..."_

"_Juugo!"_

"Juugo!"

Juugo snapped back, his orange eyes dancing frantically around him. The hallway was dark, but he could see the bodies piled around him, their faces gaunt and white without blood. "Sakura?" he whispered. He was sure he had heard her voice from the dark. Juugo pushed himself from the littered ground, scanning the silent hall even when it only spanned ten feet before it was cut off by a corner. This was a dead end.

Sakura had not come. She was too sick, _paralyzed_, he stated to himself.

"Juugo."

Juugo twisted, his thoughts going slack when Sakura stood in his sight, holding a hand to her bloodied side and beckoning him closer with a swift turn of her head. "Turns out the medics had an antidote on them," she said through a tight jaw. "Come on. We can still make it while they're distracted with the alarms you set off."

She fell against the wall slightly, closing her eyes, and Juugo moved to catch her. Where his hand brushed her shoulder, the skin under his fingers felt cool, and blanketed smooth without sweat from her fever. Juugo grew excited at this revelation, the idea that just maybe they could still escape, and tugged at her arm, ready to lead them both safely outside. But she brushed his careful touch away and stood rigid on her own two legs, walking steadily from the door to their freedom.

At first Juugo realized she must have been upset seeing the dead men at her feet. But the illusion of this assumption neither showed in her eyes or stature as she halted for just the barest of a second to turn toward him, tilting her dirty face in an innocent questioning gesture. "What is it? Is something wrong, Juugo?"

_Everything._

Doubt slowed his embrace, and Juugo watched her face. Her foot was on the hand of a dead man and her smile did not hesitate.

"Sakura..."

He took a step, watching as her face spiraled into tiny fissures of broken glass until her eyes and smile shattered, leaving him at his knees with black blood dried on his hands. His ears picked up the distant yells and footsteps further off, but Juugo remained still with his passive eyes trained ahead. "I would rather you faced me then play with my mind. Your plan just might be turned in on itself if you went too deep."

Silence endowed his summons. But Juugo could feel the release, a simple flick of simple emancipation as the attacker granted back his whole mind. Juugo fell face forward, grunting as his muscles twisted and screamed beneath his skin. One painful price to pay under the influence of a Sharingan Eye. Juugo had inquired about the effects once, believing if he could evade the Sharingan's power, then he could be of further use.

Sasuke's eyes had been cold when they looked upon him.

"_You would already be dead."_

Two feet appeared where he stared at the ground. Juugo tried to look up but the offender held his head down by yanking him by the roots. "I would rather you not get hasty on me. I have a proposition." Juugo almost laughed on reflex at the utter waste of time this man was giving him. Sirens blared around them, obliviously warning fleeing medics and guards of a danger that was barred to the ground.

"I thought you were supposed to play dumb," he grunted.

Tobi softened his grip and stood. Juugo remained still despite the beckoning of movement, laying his head against the cool of the dirt floor out of exhaustion.

"Interesting. And here I assumed the drugs had impaired you. Perhaps you would have been of use under more pleasant circumstances."

Juugo breathed through his nose, and focused on straining the muscles in his sore neck to move. "What do you want?"

"Want?" Tobi repeated. His footsteps echoed further and further away. "Simply put, I want nothing. Desire, most likely. Desiring to witness an image at my fingertips, yet it continues to remain frustratingly fickle in its own realization." Juugo watched as Tobi turned on his heel and strode towards him. His muscles twitched pitifully as he attempted to goad them into working. "But you want something," he said quietly. "To be free of your curse mark, perhaps?"

Juugo peered up at him. His heart went numb and his fingertips shook as all sounds drained from his ears.

_Rid of the curse mark?_

"Not impossible," heretorted civilly against Juugo's hesitance. His fingers knotted through his hair, tighter and tighter until Juugo grit his teeth and Tobi's breath was hot on the tip of his ear. "As neither is the girl's death."

Juugo struggled to catch a glimpse of Tobi's bare face. But Tobi had already lost interest and slid his spiraled mask back into place. He peered up at Tobi, pain thrumming weakly against his shattered nerves. Juugo had not a second thought of the possibility that the man before him would kill Sakura if he disobeyed. His death , brought upon convenience, would be just as easy to manipulate. Under the influence of his own curse mark, they could use Sakura as a sedative, and fighting back would become useless. Nameless and innocent blood had haunted him long enough.

He was dead on his feet.

"So Juugo..." Tobi's footsteps hesitated as he turned. Juugo finally managed to look up, his neck throbbing as his eyes secured Tobi's masked face. "Are you prepared to kill Sasuke Uchiha?"


End file.
